Pai Hsueh-hua (born 17 May 1955), born Pai Yueh-o, better known by her stage name Pai Bing-bing (also spelled Pai Ping-ping), is a Taiwanese singer, actress, media personality and social activist.
Life and career
Born to an impoverished family in
Keelung
Keelung () or Jilong () (; Hokkien POJ: '), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. The city is a part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with its neighbors, New Taipe ...
, Pai dropped out of formal education in her teenage years. In 1973, she won a prize in a singing contest held by
Taiwan Television
Taiwan Television Enterprise, Ltd. (), commonly known as TTV and formerly known as Central Television and Voice of Taiwan, is the first terrestrial television station in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was established on April 28, 1962, and ...
and following this success she pursued a career in the local entertainment business. In 1975, she moved to Japan to study singing and acting. At this time she had a relationship with Japanese comics writer
Ikki Kajiwara
, known by the pen names and , was a Japanese author, manga writer, and film producer. He is known for the work about sports and martial arts, with images of heroic young men with the occasional fine details as he moves from one topic to anoth ...
and they later married. Their daughter
Pai Hsiao-yen
Pai Hsiao-yen (; 23 June 1980 – 20 April 1997) was the only daughter of popular Taiwanese TV host and actress Pai Bing-bing and Japanese author Ikki Kajiwara.
Abduction, murder, and island-wide manhunt
Abduction
Pai Hsiao-yen disappeared af ...
was born in 1980 but their marriage was quickly dissolved the next year after Kajiwara engaged in an
extramarital affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of ...
and committed
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
. Pai Bing-bing had to return to Taiwan and raised Hsiao-yen as a
single mother
A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...
. Since mid-1980s, Pai has been gaining popularity for her bantering style, becoming one of the best-known Taiwanese entertainers. Richard Lloyd-Parry of ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' described Pai as the "
Cilla Black
Priscilla Maria Veronica White (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer, actress and television presenter.
Championed by her friends the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963. Her ...
of Taiwan".
[Lloyd-Parry, Richard.]
Celebrity killings stir rage in Taiwan
. ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''. Sunday 13 July 1997. Retrieved 12 December 2009. Besides her entertainment career, Pai also had significant investments in local catering service industry.
In 1997, Pai Hsiao-yen, then 16 years old,
was kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered. This event subsequently made the elder Pai into a social activist to advocate the use of death penalty; Pai founded the Swallow Foundation and chaired it to date to advocate capital punishment as well as provide legal support to local crime victims. Lloyd-Parry described the attention around the murder of Pai's daughter as giving Pai "a greater, though more terrible, fame than she had as an entertainer."
In 2010, in the wake of the global anti-capital punishment movement, Pai successfully held a protest against former
ROC Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng
Wang Tsing-fong (; born 1 January 1952 in Tainan City) is a Taiwanese lawyer and politician.
Early life
Wang graduated from the Taipei First Girls' High School and received her bachelor's and master's degrees in law from National Chengchi Uni ...
, resulting in Wang's resignation and the resumption of
executions in the Republic of China.
Taiwan justice minister resigns over death penalty
. BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. Friday 12 March 2010. Retrieved 6 September 2011.